ddustin

Mark, I like the boots better than the clubs he/she/it had before. The house looks nice, except for the smallest round part on the lower portion of the house. It looks like a clown nose, otherwise it looks good. Go Badgers David

Gene, The flipping over is controlled by the Store Roll control. It's in the constrain to path area under the bone. An image is attached. What do you mean by the individual pcs. of the conveyor being different? Hope this helps. David

I kind of followed the tank tread tutorial. I found it didn't all work for me, not sure why. The part I didn't use was the aim at the null constraint. it didn't need it. You create a model with all the parts, including the tank path(s) (as a spline), then you create an action using the tread model and constrain each cleat to the path. After that you set the ease for each part. Ease is actually how far along the path it is. You set an ease value for frame one, move your slider to the last frame and enter the final value. When you run the action it'll work. In the chor window you can set the number of times it repeats. I'd be happy to help you out with it. Others have take a lot of time to hep me. The project and the f14 are in the posted zip file. Have at it, and ask as many questions as you please. Shoot, if I can figure it out it can't be too hard David Tank_treads.zip

This is for the person who posted wanting to know how to do tank treads. Here is an mov of it. I can post the project if you would like. The F14 is a 3ds prop, along for the ride. David f14_on_treads.mov

John, Looks good. Keep working at. David

Bill, I looks great. the idea of using marshmellows is neat. You're right, there are so many things that could befall them. Atlanta AM group? When, where, how? David

Very nice. There are some incredibly tallented people here. David

Gene, I agree there has to be an easier way. If I understand you right, you moved each bone a certain amount then just repeated it to give the illusion the chain was rotating. What I've struggled with in this area (I had to be specific as I struggle regularly ) is constraining a group of bones to a path or spline is that you need to set the ease for each bone to get the right spacing. Both at the beginning and end. When I was doing the animation for the rolling machine, it took for ever to get the purple material to follow the path correctly. There were 42 bones in that material to get it to flow similar to the actual material. I also had a dwell portion where at a specific time in the animation, all the bones had their ease set to a specific value for 50 frames or so. What you did looks great! When you apply it to your forklift model you won't be running in an oval. I don't pretend to understand this but couldn't you use some type of kinematic chain? David

Gene, Yup I think I did get it from the pitstop. The spline path sounds like it might work. David

Agreed. I was under the gun a bit as I had promised something to the customer by a certain date. It ended up taking me longer to get certain portions working, than I had expected. A common pitfall for me, is to start constructing something, quickly without adding bevels and the like. Bad animator. Bottom line is you are so right. David

Eric, The machine itself will be designed in Solidworks. David

Gene, I have a model of a BMX bike that has a chain on it that goes around. I got from somewhere else. Interested?

Ken, It's supposed to lay on the trailing edge of the purple material, then get pulled along to wrap the exterior. I started rolling the paper (whit material), the same way I did the purple material, but it was very difficult to make the action to roll it up, match the purple stuff. Finally I just created another part inside the roll and just expanded it out to give the illusion it was being wrapped. A sticky thingy would be helpfull. David

Ken, Mainly the library. But also a simplified method of translation. For example, most automation involves picking up parts and move them around. right now you need to translate to, orient like. And to get a multisectioned part to follow a path is mind numbing (of course my mind isn't very from numb at any given moment). Sometimes I jazz it up, but it depends on the audience. These guys just wanted the facts. Here's a view of the other end of the machine. There are things I intentionally leave out like parts of the mechanism because the extra work doesn't justify the result. Thanks for your thoughts. David roller_cropped.mpg

Dude, You rock!!

Here's part of what I showed a potential customer. It really pales compared to the work the rest of you guys do, but it performs a very specifc function for the industrial equipment buyer. Most purchasers (VP's etc.) of industrial equipment are not engineers, and have a VERY difficult time understanding CAD drawings. They very quickly understand an animation. I can communicate in 15 minutes what would take an hour otherwise. Remember, most automated equipment STARTS at $150,000 and can easily cost millions, so they need to understand how it will work. This approach works very well. My hope is to continue to build a library of industrial items so I can reduce my construction/modeling phase and turn them around faster. People tell me the reason other equipment manufacturers don't do this is the time involved (duh). Because I'm willing to forgo sleeping much, and work on this stuff during the weekends, I can do it. Ultimately, I want to take this to industry. I showed one of my robot vids to one of the Fanuc (huge robot mfg.) robotics guys and he thought it was awesome. They can can do interactive sims for customers, but can't export anything to use in a presentation. I guess I just need to work on that library. Hey, mabey AM could have an Industrial add on and could shorten the time required for industrial guys to create these cool examples. Just the rantings of an industrial mad man. David cut_off2.m1v

I agree with making his hands look like his feet. The blue in it's eyes seems out of place. Looks very good otherwise. David

Kyle, I've had good success using ambiance. It won't glow but will simulate lighted surfaces. David

Is that stuff flammable? I think it looks really good. I happen to be animaticlly challenged when it comes to characters. David

Sorry I haven't played with muscle animation at all. If I understand it correctly you manipulate the CP's in the action to make the part roll. I realize this sounds obsessive, but I woke up this morning at 3:00 AM thinking about how to do it. As far as "what is it you want to do with it", I need to roll up a perfectly flat rubber material, with no contours. This is so cool. David Edit: Yup, you manipulate the CP's in the action and progressively roll the part up. Thanks for your help.

Aaver, How does it work? There is only one bone. David

Aaver, Thanks so much for the file, it'll save me a ton of time. David

Aaver, That's exactly what I need to do. It's outstanding!!!! Can you post the project? Thanks, David

I can't view it. BRB I'll update my quick time. David EDIT: I still can't view it. The screen is just white. How large is the file? EDIT 3: I copied the file to my computer and I get a notice that I don't have the right compressor. David

Here's the link to a page on my site where I use the serious magic software. I converted it to Flash so you'll need to be able to view that format. Green Screen David